Episode #38 BJ Gaddour on how to go from fat to fit no matter your starting point

Episode: #38 BJ Gaddour on how to go from fat to fit no matter your starting point

Who: BJ Gaddour (@BJGaddour) is the host of the Weekly BJ podcast, a former fat guy who turned cover model and fitness director for the entire Men’s Health brand. He now runs TheDailyBj.com where he delivers world-class workouts and deep dives on a wide variety of fitness topics.

In this interview, we discuss his story, how you can build fitness into your life by making your body your own barbell, the key principles and philosophies you need to follow to become fit and what BJ stands for and how it wasn’t always the most helpful nickname!

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Listen here

What we cover

Who he is

The turning point that started his transformation from ‘fat kid’ into a fitness idol – How he used his own physical trauma to help others

Who he looked up to as role models when he was a child

Where modern day fitness is going wrong and the common problems he sees with people trying to improve their physicality

The essential principles you need to follow to actually see results

The motivations behind the workouts he builds for his followers and why his workouts are so popular – “the brilliance is in the simplicity“

How can someone start making fitness part of their life and how to make it a consistent habit – you can’t be consistent with something if it is not sustainable

What he considers is a ‘fit person’ – how can we distinguish whether someone is actually fit or not

How you should workout during holidays and events – ‘don’t turn off the light, just dim the switch a little‘

BJ’s awesome book ‘Your Body is Your Barbell

A great workout ideal that anyone listening can use today to start getting fitter

How we can stop comparing ourselves and focus on our own transformations instead – how to focus on the man in the mirror

Becoming a presenter vs being a coach

How he developed the Men’s Health brand to appeal to all regardless of their current fitness level and one of the biggest mistakes you can make in any industry

Where his creativity comes from – how does he build his brand, make products etc

How does he juggle with so many demands for his time and multi-task a relationship, business, training etc

What he would like all men listening to take from this interview

An unusual fact about himself that few know

How you can keep in touch with him

What BJ stands for and how he loses money on his website to make a sex joke!

And so much more

Some things to reflect on

“Food was something that became a comfort thing” – are you using food to emotionally comfort yourself? What can you change this to?

You need to approach fitness like a lifestyle – it doesn’t matter what you choose to do activity wise (obviously there are better activities than others) but you need to be consistent and enjoy it

People have no appreciation for how long it can take to build muscle – it can take 3-5 years to build muscle

You can change everything about yourself on the exterior level to help show them what is on the interior

It is important to define the ‘why‘ you want to change to actually change yourself – but this is something that you need to discover on your own

The more you spend in one position, the more your body will adapt to this shape and tighten up

Daily walking is one of the best habits and can help improve you straight away and give key indicators of your current fitness level

To improve your diet, aim for “mostly protein and produce” on your plate, don’t worry about cutting things out at first

You need to master your bodyweight first before you should try weights

For him, workouts should have ‘movements that you can do for life‘ and are low impact but high return

Just because someone does a particular or range of movements, doesn’t mean that you need to do to succeed and get fit – what is right for you?

Successfully fit people, have created a lifestyle that makes it easy for them to become fit – you can always add time but it is hard to take away time

Fitness should be accessible to all and fun – “we want to stimulate, not annihilate” – 2 or 3, 30-45min workouts a week is the sweet spot for fitness success

“All the stuff that has humbled us along the way become huge assests down the road if you let them … all the failures we have become amazing teaching tools“

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About the Author

I would modestly describe myself as a Website Badass, Blogging Guru and Self Improvement Wizard! I'm a blogger and entrepreneur who writes to help men develop and better their lives using examples from popular media. My personal journey has been marked by awkwardness and awesomeness, OCD and 'OMG'. I'm 33, a Teuchter and currently resides in the United Kingdom. I've set my own foot on fire whilst reading and been a midwife to sheep! I also run www.iandawsonmackay.com for your website needs!